History/Evolution of My Bella Color

With each listed target, Sharon shares her underlying philosophy and ideas that developed that target and how she then went about making that a reality.

Many years of hard work and dedication have resulted in the creation of the online education offered to Licensed Cosmetologists, Cosmetology Students and Hair Clients on the My Bella Color website.

My Bella Color provides Licensed Cosmetologists, Cosmetology Students and Hair Clients an online education about Hair Coloring and Hair Cutting. Hundreds of educational products are made available for sale.

“Art is my first love in life. So, first and foremost I view myself as an Artist.”

A Hair Colorist is an Artist. The Hair Artist colors hair like a painter paints a canvas. Designing a custom hair cut, is similar to the Sculptor or Architect creating a new shape. Understanding the concept of Color and the dimensions of design are very important to being a successful Hair Colorist & Hair Designer. They are also important pieces of knowledge that the Hair Client needs to know in order to be a happy Hair Client.

With a background in Fine Art from the Columbus College of Art & Design, and over 25 years of Hair Coloring and Hair Cutting experience, Sharon Sovinski has combined her in-depth, understanding and application of the elements of Art and Hair, for years-on-end, and thus brings to LIFE here, the fruits of this combined knowledge and helps educate both Hair Professionals and Hair Clients on understanding Hair Coloring, advancing Hair Coloring and Hair Cutting techniques, advising on custom hair coloring, and more! This is ART and HAIR.

Breaking”rules” and doing Hair “outside” of “norm” (outside of what is taught at Beauty Schools) is not very popular when it comes face to face with breaking the mold!

Achieving award winning results on Hair Clients, and Hair Clients getting the award winning results they desire, is what My Bella Color is all about!

The knowledge available is from many, many years of hands on experience!

In 1994, Sharon created advanced, custom hair color foiling on a Celebrity Musician in Hollywood, CA, long before multi-color hair coloring was popular. In 1997, Sharon leased a bungalow on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, CA. Which was later learned to be the home of legendary screen-actor, Rudolph Valentino.

In the Sunset bungalow, Sharon created a very private, artistic Hair Salon – “Ciao Bella”.

It was at Ciao Bella where Sharon would gain national attention as a Master Hair Colorist.”

After breaking out of the standard foiling weave “box” in 1994 Sharon held her ground and continued to create custom foiling techniques and hair coloring applications that were not yet thought of in the Hair Industry.

Despite the “stay-in-the-box” “base color and highlight” philosophy that filled Hollywood to the brim, Sharon’s results were proof enough! Celebrities walked through Ciao Bella one after the other. Sharon Sovinski was getting the hair coloring results that “no one else in town could seem to do”.

“When I stepped away from patterns built on tradition and began customizing Coloring Hair as an ART form is when my Hair Coloring Career took off!”

Being in control of your craft, with a wide-open palette that is completely understood must surely be the recipe for being happy as a Master Hair Colorist.

“Although I was doing something very different, I had to recognize why it was that I was in fact doing that was so different. It was my goal to study my original techniques and make them better and better and better!”

One thing we never know is WHO that person IS in the Hair Chair! We don’t know at the time IF that Hair Color Client is going to play a very important role in our Hair Coloring Career or not.

And this was the situation with my Client, “Mona”. She arrived to my Hair Chair from having seen a woman wearing one of my extremely contrasted multi-color hair color creations and “Mona” wanted the same. Now, the thing about “Mona” was that she had been all over town trying to get the Hair Color she wanted and she had yet to get it, and, her hair looked the part! It was a complete mess! Yet, with extreme patience, I delicately selected hair through her entire head of pre-existing, overly bleached hair – remapping the entire head of hair – with the utmost carefulness and thoroughness – and the results were spectacular! “Mona” was thrilled! So thrilled that she ended up giving new meaning to Hair Color Career Expansion! “Mona” was referring over 5 new people a week! All on her own! I had saved her hair and gave her what she wanted and she was telling everyone who saw her Hair Color and asked about it!

“Mona’s” word-of-mouth, spread far and wide and fast and furious! There was a buzz about my Hair Coloring foil work in highly competitive Hollywood, and it was piercing! I couldn’t help but feel it! I was working non-stop behind the Hair Chair coloring hair! Although I don’t count my Hair Color foils, I must have hit over 2000 foils applied in less than a week at that time! I should have been glowing because my reputation as a Master Hair Colorist was successfully preceding me… but I still cleaned and mopped the “non-Salon” Hair Salon – “Ciao Bella” by myself. I mention this because it’s part of a very funny story.

When Elle Magazine contacted me, I was mopping! I thought the woman was trying to sell me a subscription, so I kindly began to get off of the phone. That was, until she announced that she was calling to ask me to be included amongst the “Top Ten Masters of Makeovers” in the “Best of the Best” section of ELLE Magazine! I put the mop down! And that began our first phone interview.

When she asked, “Isn’t it true that you are the Colorist in town (Hollywood) that does the Hair Color work that no one else in town can seem to do?” I knew that she had heard of me via “Mona”!

My hard work, custom hair color formulas, coloring concepts, original foiling techniques and dedication to doing the best work I could possibly do on every single Hair Color Client – is what landed me in ELLE magazine!

There was no mistake that I received the ELLE magazine editorial. However, I didn’t boast, or brag, I just kept on working hard. Harder actually. The phones were ringing off the hook! And, I was there with foils in hand to color them all!

Although working in the highly competitive Los Angeles area, I believe I must be very humble in nature as I never thought I had achieved “fame”, or “Celebrity” status after I received the “Top Ten Masters of Makeovers” editorial in ELLE. It was a dear Client of mine who is friends with many Hollywood Celebrities that attempted to put things into perspective for me when she advised, “You know, Sharon, famous people are the last to know they’re famous!”

As I was digesting her comment, my wheels started turning. All I could do to reply was offer her a surprised, some-what baffled look, and a large smile. Her comment continued to make it’s way through my mind as I contemplated: Why didn’t I feel “famous”? Shouldn’t I be celebrating having received National Recognition as a Hair Colorist in highly competitive Los Angeles, CA… having begun in Wheeling, WV, then Fort Lauderdale, and now Hollywood?

The one thing that I knew, the one fact that was the common denominator, that I could hold on to that was true for me, was that I was doing something very right! And, very original! And, it was working very, very well! I was combining original Hair Color foiling techniques and my extreme understanding of hair color formulating to create fantastic results and vast success and expansion was resulting in my Hair Coloring Career! And, I KNEW I HAD TO SHARE IT with other HAIR COLORISTS!

How could I keep this all to myself? I had to share what I was doing with other Stylists immediately. I had to get my unique foiling techniques into the hands of other Hair Colorists! And, that is what I set out to do after the ELLE Magazine editorial! I did just that by sharing my unique foiling on the video I dubbed – “Panels & Chunks” – the original foiling technique that landed me National Recognition in ELLE Magazine!

After expanding the DVD into being available in Spanish, and releasing it in both Italy and Puerto Rico, my Hair Coloring and Educational Career continued to rapidly expand back at Ciao Bella!

As an Artist, there are many different aspects of my Hair Coloring Career that I thoroughly enjoy creating! While I love to color hair, I also learned through the filming, editing, and menu-authoring of the DVD that I love to learn computer software programs and create original graphics. I was the happiest I had ever been in my Hair Coloring Career when I began to create educational materials for other Licensed Professionals! Not only was my Career expanding, but my knowledge – into other realms – was expanding too! After creating the DVD, I set out to create additional educational materials. And, one of the major, life-changing events that occurred to me as I was writing on the subject of Hair Color, Coloring Hair, Color basics, Color Formulating, Color Mixing, Hair Color Career promotion and marketing, Salon Owning, and other aspects of Hair Color Career development, is that if I don’t know it, I can’t write it! Instead of giving up, I decided to follow-through and continue to educate myself on areas of Coloring Hair in which I was uncertain or out-right, just did not know! Therefore, when I first began writing educational material pertaining to Hair Color, I first studied in depth the subject matter I was writing. There is one thing about wanting to truly educate others, and that is that the Author can’t “fudge” his way through educational content if he wants to sincerely offer a genuine education!

If the writer doesn’t know it – it can’t be written. Not if it is educational content. Every time I develop a new educational document, tool, promotion or marketing concept, I first study it, and understand it completely, in order to correctly relay the information to others. The door that must open in order for someone to be “able to learn” is first recognizing that one does not already “know it all”. Prior to teaching others, I first ask myself what I do NOT know about the subject. That is what is required of you, if you want to achieve greater success in your Hair Coloring Career! Open that door! And may you experience far greater success than you have ever imagined! It’s here for the asking!

After I placed the “Panels & Chunks” educational DVD onto the original My Bella Color website, I began receiving hundreds of emails from Hair Clients and Hair Stylists from around the world. Many Hair Stylists, Hair Colorists and Salon Owners were asking for MORE Hair Color educational materials and in-house educational Hair Coloring Seminars!

I figured that the timing to expand was perfect.

I lifted my roots from Hollywood and headed to the Burbank, Media District to locate a space that would be the new home for the new My Bella Color Studio. A space large enough for in-house Hair Seminars!

After finding the perfect location for the new Studio near NBC, Warner Bros., Disney and other leading film-industry Studios, I signed the lease in February, 2005.

Once again, I chose the best location, and the space in the worst condition!

As I was creating the new space, I realized that the new space was in fact, actually, the My Bella Color Studio.

I created the perfect workspace for myself and several other Artists. I also created ample space to allow me to give the in-house hair coloring educational seminars. The Studio enabled me to have other Colorists apprentice and work under me. The Studio has been a wonderful stepping-stone in my career as a Professional Hair Colorist, Hair Designer and Educator.

Good news travels very fast! Only 6 months after opening the new My Bella Color Studio I was asked by leading National Fashion Magazine- “W” to feature My Bella Color as one of the “Top Trendsetting Salons” in the USA! As I accepted “W’s” offer, I again recognized that it was my continued hard work, dedication to making certain every single Hair Color Client looks great and loves her end results that enabled me to be included in both ELLE and “W” magazines.

It is my knowledge, and continued, successful applications and technical skills of the Art of Coloring Hair and the Art of Cutting Hair that is available to you HERE on the My Bella Color website!

I have always viewed my Hair Coloring work as Art. Coloring Hair, to me, is no different than painting a painting. The only thing I am doing is using hair as the “medium”. That is why I still have refrained from using the word Salon, and instead used the word Studio. The new Studio is where I happen to perform the Fine Art of Beauty. It is where, I, as an Artist, do my Art.

Not so far below the surface of my passion for the Art of Coloring Hair is my passion for writing. I have, throughout the years of my Hair Coloring Career continued to document my Hair Color knowledge. Over the years I have expanded my file folders to the point of bursting! With the new My Bella Color website, I now have a home for all of my educational materials I have written and created. I have the online shopping cart where I have placed these very valuable documents for sale through digital download to help keep the price affordable and the availability fast and efficient! There are documents available for almost all of your Hair Color Career needs. All of these documents contain only the information that I have found to be correct, useful and extremely successful. Consider that I am handing over to you very valuable gems!